Results of Lean application at An Thinh Dien organic fertilizer

An Thinh Dien Organic Fertilizer Company Limited (Tan Phuoc Hung commune, Phung Hiep district, Hau Giang province) is an enterprise specializing in the production of mineral organic fertilizers and nitrogenous fertilizers for the domestic market.

Recognizing the benefits of lean production method, the Board of Directors has decided to join the Government’s support program for lean production. The first and foremost purpose is to improve the workspace, improve employee awareness about productivity, and improve the materials management method in the warehouse.

Surveying the current state of the company, consultants have discovered a number of outstanding issues such as: The company’s workspace is very cluttered, many unnecessary items that occupy the factory area, and In use, it is not arranged scientifically, the materials in the warehouse are very difficult to manage; At the VIAN fertilizer production line, workers spend a lot of time cleaning and cleaning the materials that fall on the floor, the factory has to waste time as well as the cost of reprocessing the spilled materials after recovery.

The cause of the above situation is due to: Most of the Company employees are not familiar with the concept of productivity and quality, and have not yet identified the waste generated in production activities, only improvement activities can perform spontaneously, inclined to handle phenomena when problems occur; Improving or rewarding motivates individuals whose achievements in innovation have not become a regular activity or movement at the factory.

To solve the problem, 5S and Kaizen, two basic tools in lean production method, were instructed by experts for company employees. The result is:

With 5S activities, the company completed 3S (Screening, Sorting, Cleanliness) in a 3-month period, at the same time reaching 70% of the rating scale. Thanks to 5S, the workspace has become more open and scientific, reducing the waiting time of workers, increasing the efficiency of management of material warehouses.

With the improvement activities to reduce the amount of spilled input materials, the Company has deployed 2 main groups of solutions applicable to stages from raw material weighing, to mixing ingredients, creating granules and packaging products: Reinforce the filling of open areas or fabricate closed caps or troughs to collect material on the conveyors; Establish rules and perform cleaning items on the line. Thanks to these solutions, the material wastage rate was reduced from 206 kg / day to 63 kg / day and reduced workers’ time and effort in cleaning and cleaning.

Other small improvements: Troubleshooting granulator reduces equipment downtime by 180 minutes. Currently this problem has not been recurring; Drum drying reduces 120 minutes of downtime. Until the end of the project, the equipment is still working normally, not having the problem recurring.

From the above results, the Board of Directors of An Thinh Dien Company decided to maintain the application of 5S and Kaizen in the coming time to improve production efficiency and improve the competitiveness of products that the Company supply on the market.

Productivity and Quality Office